I had been invited to China by my daughter, Briandy Walden, who works for the University of California, Irvine in an email she sent in 2005. She had heard about the Legends of China tour and planned to take advantage of it in the summer of 2006.

One day an envelope arrived from my daughter and in it was a plain silk banner. I was going on a journey. And I recalled that an esteemed Chinese philosopher had written a saying that applied to all the "journeys" we take in our lifetime -- " A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step." - Confucius. Thus, before I even arrived, the land to which I was going gave me inspiration.

I am not very artistic or good at drawing so I decided that felt would be my medium of choice. Except for the store bought small blue letters (thankfully) everything else was freehand cutting and pasting and sewing.

I wanted to depict the goodwill and wish for peace that the majority of American and Chinese citizens wanted for their world and decided on doves departing from each country on their peaceful mission -- a journey, a single step begun.

And hopefully their mission will be accomplished, we must all remember our humaness and take each step forward toward kindness, caring and peace.

I want to sincerely thank "Legends of China" for the outstanding program and tour they have put together and to thank them for the opportunity of a lifetime -- to visit China. I have enjoyed their culture, their beautiful parks and gardens, their traditions, their love of singing and dancing, their hospitality. My world has become smaller -- these gentle, gracious, smiling people are not so far away now. I can only hope that the hallmark of Legends in China will be an inspiration to all.

My name is Kaye Luenprakansit and I am 20 years old. I attend the University of California, Irvine as an International Studies major and will be completing my degree this December.

My banner demonstrates the unity of the world through a single handshake. I feel that world peace takes time, and we can begin to promote it through friendship and understanding each other. With the different flags from all over the world (on the sleeve) come different cultures and ways of seeing and interpretation. The doves represent the world renowned symbol for peace with olive leaves throughout the banner.

My bio: I am a graduate student in philosophy at UCSD. My dissertation is on associative political obligations, comparing obligations we have to friends and family to those we have to our fellow citizens and our nation.

Creation process: To create this banner, I used a traditional method of textile design called batik, which is found in southern China, as well as Indonesia and as far away as West Africa. First, I painted the design on the silk with melted wax. After it cooled, I soaked the panel in blue dye. Then, I removed the wax, leaving a pattern on the silk.

Pete DuBois
UC Santa Cruz Family/Supporter

Design Inspiration:
The sun, bird, and flowers are intended to symbolize a garden of tranquility and peace, with the four corners representing the unity of the four corners of the world.

I am a student of the wonderful Revelle college at University of California, San Diego. Currently, I am studying Human Biology in hopes to enter medical school and become a M.D. The trip to China was breathtaking for me, I have always been fascinated by Asian culture. Since LOC, I plan for further travel in the East.

The due date for the banner was approaching very quickly and I couldn't choose what to create. I remembered seeing a symbol for the United Nations that displayed a windmill with different flags making up its body. I think that is a wonderful representation of togetherness. Painting a bird was always on my mind, so I painted a peacock with tail feathers as flags of the world, much like the symbol of the windmill. The motto I created along with the piece was “together, we are beautiful.” Peacocks represent beauty because of their tail feathers, but, if a single feather were to stand alone, it would not be as magnificent if it weren't together with the others. As one, the world can truly be beautiful. I wrote this slogan along the border of the banner in seven different languages. The piece took about three days to finish and done in acrylic paint.

Thank you very much for all the work and time you put into this year's LOC program to make it such a success! It was a chance in a lifetime experience, and being Chinese American, it was one of my goals to visit mainland China some time in my life so I really appreciate it. I am a Masters of Engineering graduate student in electrical engineering at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and plan to finish my graduate studies in spring of 2008. I am third/fourth generation American born Chinese, my family being from the Canton region. Besides engineering, health care/bio sciences and music (arranging/performing/recording as well as attending concerts, performances, etc) are two other strong interests of mine. I very much enjoyed being a part of the 2006 Silk Road to the Future LOC Trip and hope any other students interested in China have a chance to participate as well!

As the theme for the silk banners is to emphasize world peace, especially good relations between China and the United States, I chose symbols representative of peace in both nations: the Chinese character "huh", and the circular" peace symbol," respectively. I also selected birds as a common motif to surround these overlapping symbols, the Phoenix representative of China, the bald eagle representative of the United States, and doves in the center, a common symbol of peace worldwide. Together then through a good relationship between China and the United States, this can serve as a model and good start for peace worldwide among all nations as the banner represents.